WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.451 align:middle line:84% Which of your collections are you [INAUDIBLE] ten year 00:00:02.451 --> 00:00:04.792 align:middle line:90% old contemplating death? 00:00:04.792 --> 00:00:06.000 align:middle line:90% What was [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.370 align:middle line:84% I think it's called "On Turning 10." 00:00:08.370 --> 00:00:11.130 align:middle line:84% I think it's in this poem book, Picnic, Lightning. 00:00:11.130 --> 00:00:12.250 align:middle line:90% But I'm-- 00:00:12.250 --> 00:00:12.990 align:middle line:90% No, I think-- 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:14.633 align:middle line:84% Or it's The Art of Drowning, I think. 00:00:14.633 --> 00:00:15.300 align:middle line:90% Art of Drowning. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:15.800 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:21.180 align:middle line:90% 00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:22.163 align:middle line:90% Sorry. 00:00:22.163 --> 00:00:22.830 align:middle line:90% Oh you have one. 00:00:22.830 --> 00:00:23.330 align:middle line:90% Go ahead. 00:00:23.330 --> 00:00:26.010 align:middle line:84% I'm curious if you reached a point where you totally 00:00:26.010 --> 00:00:28.080 align:middle line:84% trust your voice when you finish your poem. 00:00:28.080 --> 00:00:30.390 align:middle line:90% Or do you have a third person-- 00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:31.890 align:middle line:90% a third eye, I call it. 00:00:31.890 --> 00:00:35.940 align:middle line:84% And that I like to turn to to try to poem out on. 00:00:35.940 --> 00:00:39.410 align:middle line:84% And then, for some reason I hear it with a new ear 00:00:39.410 --> 00:00:41.160 align:middle line:84% as soon as I'm reading it to someone else. 00:00:41.160 --> 00:00:44.790 align:middle line:84% I can read it to myself and get to a certain point. 00:00:44.790 --> 00:00:46.260 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:00:46.260 --> 00:00:47.985 align:middle line:90% No, I don't read it to anybody. 00:00:47.985 --> 00:00:48.650 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.650 --> 00:00:50.500 align:middle line:90% I don't try it out on anybody. 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:51.990 align:middle line:90% I don't show it to anybody. 00:00:51.990 --> 00:00:53.340 align:middle line:90% I show it to my wife sometimes. 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:55.440 align:middle line:90% And she's very-- 00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:57.120 align:middle line:84% I mean, she has a very good critical eye 00:00:57.120 --> 00:00:58.900 align:middle line:90% in terms of grammar and lines. 00:00:58.900 --> 00:01:01.440 align:middle line:84% And she just-- like the sentence is too long-- very, very 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:02.520 align:middle line:90% good practical advice. 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.459 align:middle line:90% 00:01:05.459 --> 00:01:07.620 align:middle line:90% But I just do it by myself. 00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:09.990 align:middle line:84% I just-- I look at books of poetry 00:01:09.990 --> 00:01:14.310 align:middle line:84% where the book opens by thanking 10 other poets for having 00:01:14.310 --> 00:01:15.840 align:middle line:90% looked at this manuscript. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:17.470 align:middle line:84% It's just like quilting at that point. 00:01:17.470 --> 00:01:18.630 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:18.630 --> 00:01:21.960 align:middle line:84% I always thought poetry was a solitary activity. 00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:24.330 align:middle line:84% It's what you go off in the shack, 00:01:24.330 --> 00:01:26.580 align:middle line:84% and you pull your cowl over your-- 00:01:26.580 --> 00:01:27.420 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:30.450 align:middle line:84% --around yourself, and light a scented candle, 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:31.650 align:middle line:90% and whatever you have to do. 00:01:31.650 --> 00:01:34.852 align:middle line:90% But for me, it's always been a-- 00:01:34.852 --> 00:01:37.060 align:middle line:84% this comes out of my brooding romantic genius period. 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:38.460 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:38.460 --> 00:01:41.800 align:middle line:84% It's always been an intrinsically solo activity. 00:01:41.800 --> 00:01:44.280 align:middle line:84% So I've never taken a workshop-- only because they weren't 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:49.620 align:middle line:84% around basically when I was vulnerable and susceptible 00:01:49.620 --> 00:01:51.040 align:middle line:90% to that kind of thing. 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.775 align:middle line:84% So I just I think I know enough so I can just hear it myself. 00:01:53.775 --> 00:01:56.190 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:56.190 --> 00:01:59.955 align:middle line:84% Because I mean, I'm writing, and I'm writing it to a reader. 00:01:59.955 --> 00:02:02.580 align:middle line:84% So it's not like I'm committing this act of literature and then 00:02:02.580 --> 00:02:05.250 align:middle line:84% later, oh look, let me show it to someone 00:02:05.250 --> 00:02:06.450 align:middle line:90% and see what they think. 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:10.189 align:middle line:84% I'm showing it to someone as I'm writing, would be the answer.